Fishy tales

Dozens of New York’s finest are indicted for disability fraud

“YOU’RE gonna tell ‘em: ‘I don’t sleep well at night. I’m up three, four times. Usually, I nap on and off during the day. I put the television on, you know, I keep changing channels ‘cause I can’t concentrate on the television. Just to hear a voice in the house.’” So advised Joseph Esposito, a retired police officer turned “disability consultant”, while coaching someone looking to fool his doctor so as to claim disability benefits. He went on to say, in a phone call intercepted by investigators: “If you can, you pretend to have panic attacks.”

Mr Esposito is one of 106, who include 80 retired police and fire fighters, indicted by a grand jury for disability fraud on January 7th. Four, including Mr Esposito, were accused of masterminding the fraud. In exchange for generous kick-backs, they allegedly directed scores of retirees to lie about their health to obtain benefits to which they were not entitled. All four pleaded not guilty. In all, the defendants allegedly received more than $21m in benefits.

Several claimed they could no longer work or lead active lives. Yet investigators found, on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, pictures of them playing basketball, using jet skis and flying helicopters. One man who claimed to be virtually housebound was snapped fishing for marlin in Costa Rica (pictured).

Cyrus Vance, Manhattan’s district attorney, speculates that the scheme, which dates back to 1988, may have involved as many as 1,000 people and as much as $400m in benefits. More indictments are expected.

The number of Americans receiving disability payments has shot up from 4.9m in 1999 to 8.9m last year. Fraud is rife, according to Tom Coburn, a Republican senator from Oklahoma who led an inquiry in 2012 into the Social Security Administration’s disability programme. He found that a quarter of 300 randomly selected disability cases were awarded with insufficient, contradictory or incomplete evidence. It’s the sort of thing that makes taxpayers feel sick.